In drilling a wellbore into the earth, such as for the recovery of hydrocarbons or minerals from a subsurface formation, it is conventional practice to connect a drill bit onto the lower end of a “drillstring,” then rotate the drillstring so that the drill bit progresses downward into the earth to create the desired borehole. A typical drillstring is made up from an assembly of drill pipe sections connected end-to-end, plus a bottom hole assembly (BHA) disposed between the bottom of the drill pipe sections and the drill bit. The BHA is typically made up of sub-components such as drill collars, stabilizers, reamers, logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tools, and/or other drilling tools and accessories, selected to suit the particular requirements of the well being drilled.
MWD tools may provide drilling parameter information such as weight-on-bit, torque, temperature, pressure, direction, and inclination; and LWD tools may provide formation evaluation measurements such as resistivity, porosity, NMR distributions, and the like. The tools and/or components making up the BHA may be connected using one or more electrical connectors, which enable communications and transmission of electrical signals between the tools in the BHA.